Scotland Yard comes to Mumbai 

Scotland Yard team to acquaint Mumbai Police with cyber crime-fighting techniques

A team of sleuths specialising in cyber crime detection from the internationally famous Scotland Yard Police, will be visiting Mumbai in December 2000, to acquaint their counterparts in the Mumbai Police on the new techniques used for detecting cyber crime, ferreting evidence against the accused and accordingly prosecuting them. Maharashtra's Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal who had visited the Scotland Yard Police headquarters in London, last week, told mumbaibest.com that the Scotland Yard Police will be shortly visiting the metropolis to train the Mumbai Police on tackling cyber crimes, which needs highly specialised expertise.

``A team of Scotland Yard Police will be shortly visiting Mumbai, to familiarise the Mumbai Police on various ways to tackle cyber crime which has grown following the boom in the Information Technology sector. During my visit to London, last week, I visited the headquarters of Scotland Yard Police and acquainted myself with the latest techniques applied by the Scotland Yard Police and the London Police to tackle cyber crime and other forms of organised white collar crimes. The entire police network in London has been computerised and the police are able to maintain a close tab on every case, right from registration of a complaint till the court passes the judgement,'' said Bhujbal.

Cyber crime is really turning out to be a nightmare for the Mumbai Police, and Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) D Shivanandan admits that it is very much on the rise.``In the first week of October, 2000, a seperate cell in the crime branch had been established to deal with cyber crimes. I must admit that cyber crime is on the rise in Mumbai, and it is new for the Mumbai Police. Policemen are being trained in detecting cyber crimes and police personnel are being encouraged to be computer savvy,'' said Shivanandan. It is pertinent to note that the Maharashtra government is reimbursing the computer course fees of police personnel, who have sucessfully completed recognised courses. Mumbai's crime branch is fully computerised and the computer network is being spread to the local police station level in the metropolis. Offices of senior officials of the rank of Deputy Commissioner of Police and above, are linked up to the main computer system at the crime branch. Currently, the expertise of software experts is being sought by the Mumbai Police, to detect, and collect relevant documentary evidence, so as to prepare a watertight case against those accused of being involved in cyber crimes.

By :Mani D'Mello

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